SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 32,489
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- 62,665
- We looked like a pretty good team today. Are we? Stay tuned. Looking like one will do for now. I’ve felt that this roster had the potential to come together and be the best team we’ve had in years all along and they are showing signs of it, ‘it’ being adjusting to this level of play and to new teammates. The skills of these players seem to fit together more so than in recent seasons.
- We were 3 for 14 from three and yet scored 83 points against a team that is 22nd in the nation, (of 352 teams - #352, believe it or not, is Villanova:
NCAA College Men's Basketball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com )
We managed 8 threes against Oakland and scored 95 points, (and it should have been 100). There’s no reason we can’t become a decent three point team. You basically need two guys. That would be Joe Girard on one side of the court and Chris Bell or Justin Taylor on the other side. Bell hasn’t developed into a good enough all-round player and Taylor’s shooting has been inconsistent at best. But if those guys get it going, Joe will have an easier time of it on the other side. We don’t need a dozen threes but consistently getting 7-8 of them would add an extra dimension to this team.
- We’ve also been scoring without a lot of fast break points: 14 of 95 vs, Oakland and 14 of 83 in this game. Yet I think we can become an excellent running team because we can block shots and make str4eal on defense and we have excellent passers and finishers.
- When this team gets going, watch out. Against Oakland, we were up 27-24. We then scored 20 points in a row to take control of the game, (the last being the first bucket of the second half), and went on to take a 93-51 lead before the walk-ons came in. That’s a 66-27 stretch. Today we were behind 0-9 and 6-17. Jim sent in mostly his second team and we scored a dozen points in a row to take the lead and extended the lead to 45-34 at the half, a 39-17 run. Neither team distinguished itself through much of the second half. It was 64-57 with 5:16 left, (that’s 19-23 since halftime) But we closed with a 19-7 run to win going away. (The 83-64 final reminded me of Alan Iverson’s final year at Georgetown, when they beat us by that score in DC but we beat them 85-64 up here and went on to play for the national championship.) To do those things without a lot of threes or fest break points tells me this is a very talented half-court team.
- Jesse Edwards continue to show us something new in every game, a sign of both his talent and how hard he is working to improve. In the last game I saw an Onuaku-like back to the basket move. In this game it was a 12 foot jumper. But he’s hugely aided by the fact that we now have several means to get him the ball in a position to score. Joe Girard throws a good alley-oop. John Bol Ajak has those 6-9 to 6-11 loopers and Judah Mintz can mesmerize the defenders with his zig-zag moves and toss the ball past them to Jesse. Jesse also showed he could pass with 3 assists. He also had 5 blocks and a double-double, (20p11r). And G-town has some good big men with Wahab and Akok, (both of whom we wanted).
- Judah Mintz can do everything but sink jump shots. He’s much better at hitting miracle shots against two guys while falling to the floor. He was 3 for 9 and 0 for 1 from three but got to the line 11 times and made 10 of them for 16 points. 10 assists also gave him a double-double. He also had 5 steals. He’s like a mosquito, buzzing around and through the defense, looking for a place to bite.
- Back in 2018, I asked if John Bol Ajak was as good as Akok Akok, who was going to Connecticut. Here is the answer I got:
are there...
This was their first opportunity to get head-to-head against each other. They may have similar names and size but they have very different games. Akok, (“A cook”) is an inside scorer/rebounder/shot blocker. Ajak doesn’t score, can rebound, (he had 5 in this game), is where he’s supposed to be on defense and is a fine passer. He keeps the ball moving, much as Marek Dolezaj did for us when he was here, (although I never expected to make such a comparison). Both players have had trouble breaking into the starting lineup, (and in Akok’s case, staying there).
Here are their career numbers per 40 minutes:
Akok 8.6p 8.3r 0.9a 0.7s 3.2b – 4.4mfg 0.7mft 1.4to 2.3pf = 12.9NP
Ajak 5.4p 7.2r 4.2a 0.7s 0.9b – 2.9mfg 0.9mft 1.3to 4.2pf = 9.0NP
Akok’s been better, (and has played a lot more minute, 1,398-179) but Ajak has proven that he can play, too. Their numbers in this game:
Akok: 8p 8t 2a 1b 1s - 4mfg 0mft 3to 2pf = 11NP in 38 minutes
Ajak: 5p 5r 2a 2s 0b – 0mfg 0mft 2to 4pf = 8NP in 20 minutes. The gap is narrowing.
- People complain about Joe Girard. Some of them called in to point out that he was just 2 for 8 from three. But his shot selection was good and he wound up scoring 15 points. He was 3 for 5 inside the arc and 3 for 3 from the foul line. Yes, he had that horrendous three game stretch in which he was 2 for 25 from the field and scored just 9 points. We lost all three games, which prompts understandable complaints but also proves his importance to the team. In our other games he’s scored from 14-31 points and we are 6-1 in those games. And Jim Boeheim constantly points out that the defender(s) he draws open things up for his teammates. He constantly points it out because it’s true.
- Benny Williams hit 6 of 10 shots and scored 3 points, giving us four double-figure scorers. That’s what we need to keep winning: share the ball and hold up your end.
- We had 24 points off turnovers to Gtown’s 9 and 46 points in the paint to their 22.
- It’s 8:10 and Georgetown still sucks and we don’t.
6-4 with 21+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- We were 3 for 14 from three and yet scored 83 points against a team that is 22nd in the nation, (of 352 teams - #352, believe it or not, is Villanova:
NCAA College Men's Basketball DI current team Stats | NCAA.com )
We managed 8 threes against Oakland and scored 95 points, (and it should have been 100). There’s no reason we can’t become a decent three point team. You basically need two guys. That would be Joe Girard on one side of the court and Chris Bell or Justin Taylor on the other side. Bell hasn’t developed into a good enough all-round player and Taylor’s shooting has been inconsistent at best. But if those guys get it going, Joe will have an easier time of it on the other side. We don’t need a dozen threes but consistently getting 7-8 of them would add an extra dimension to this team.
- We’ve also been scoring without a lot of fast break points: 14 of 95 vs, Oakland and 14 of 83 in this game. Yet I think we can become an excellent running team because we can block shots and make str4eal on defense and we have excellent passers and finishers.
- When this team gets going, watch out. Against Oakland, we were up 27-24. We then scored 20 points in a row to take control of the game, (the last being the first bucket of the second half), and went on to take a 93-51 lead before the walk-ons came in. That’s a 66-27 stretch. Today we were behind 0-9 and 6-17. Jim sent in mostly his second team and we scored a dozen points in a row to take the lead and extended the lead to 45-34 at the half, a 39-17 run. Neither team distinguished itself through much of the second half. It was 64-57 with 5:16 left, (that’s 19-23 since halftime) But we closed with a 19-7 run to win going away. (The 83-64 final reminded me of Alan Iverson’s final year at Georgetown, when they beat us by that score in DC but we beat them 85-64 up here and went on to play for the national championship.) To do those things without a lot of threes or fest break points tells me this is a very talented half-court team.
- Jesse Edwards continue to show us something new in every game, a sign of both his talent and how hard he is working to improve. In the last game I saw an Onuaku-like back to the basket move. In this game it was a 12 foot jumper. But he’s hugely aided by the fact that we now have several means to get him the ball in a position to score. Joe Girard throws a good alley-oop. John Bol Ajak has those 6-9 to 6-11 loopers and Judah Mintz can mesmerize the defenders with his zig-zag moves and toss the ball past them to Jesse. Jesse also showed he could pass with 3 assists. He also had 5 blocks and a double-double, (20p11r). And G-town has some good big men with Wahab and Akok, (both of whom we wanted).
- Judah Mintz can do everything but sink jump shots. He’s much better at hitting miracle shots against two guys while falling to the floor. He was 3 for 9 and 0 for 1 from three but got to the line 11 times and made 10 of them for 16 points. 10 assists also gave him a double-double. He also had 5 steals. He’s like a mosquito, buzzing around and through the defense, looking for a place to bite.
- Back in 2018, I asked if John Bol Ajak was as good as Akok Akok, who was going to Connecticut. Here is the answer I got:
are there...
This was their first opportunity to get head-to-head against each other. They may have similar names and size but they have very different games. Akok, (“A cook”) is an inside scorer/rebounder/shot blocker. Ajak doesn’t score, can rebound, (he had 5 in this game), is where he’s supposed to be on defense and is a fine passer. He keeps the ball moving, much as Marek Dolezaj did for us when he was here, (although I never expected to make such a comparison). Both players have had trouble breaking into the starting lineup, (and in Akok’s case, staying there).
Here are their career numbers per 40 minutes:
Akok 8.6p 8.3r 0.9a 0.7s 3.2b – 4.4mfg 0.7mft 1.4to 2.3pf = 12.9NP
Ajak 5.4p 7.2r 4.2a 0.7s 0.9b – 2.9mfg 0.9mft 1.3to 4.2pf = 9.0NP
Akok’s been better, (and has played a lot more minute, 1,398-179) but Ajak has proven that he can play, too. Their numbers in this game:
Akok: 8p 8t 2a 1b 1s - 4mfg 0mft 3to 2pf = 11NP in 38 minutes
Ajak: 5p 5r 2a 2s 0b – 0mfg 0mft 2to 4pf = 8NP in 20 minutes. The gap is narrowing.
- People complain about Joe Girard. Some of them called in to point out that he was just 2 for 8 from three. But his shot selection was good and he wound up scoring 15 points. He was 3 for 5 inside the arc and 3 for 3 from the foul line. Yes, he had that horrendous three game stretch in which he was 2 for 25 from the field and scored just 9 points. We lost all three games, which prompts understandable complaints but also proves his importance to the team. In our other games he’s scored from 14-31 points and we are 6-1 in those games. And Jim Boeheim constantly points out that the defender(s) he draws open things up for his teammates. He constantly points it out because it’s true.
- Benny Williams hit 6 of 10 shots and scored 3 points, giving us four double-figure scorers. That’s what we need to keep winning: share the ball and hold up your end.
- We had 24 points off turnovers to Gtown’s 9 and 46 points in the paint to their 22.
- It’s 8:10 and Georgetown still sucks and we don’t.
6-4 with 21+ to go
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
